30-05-2025
Just like growing a garden, memories need some love and care
In the early 70s, Mac Crummer was on the cusp of adulthood and told his mother that he wanted to hitchhike from here in southern Ontario all the way to Vancouver, B.C.
'And now, being a parent, I'm thinking my poor mom,' Crummer laughed. 'She said, 'You're what? Well, you don't have any money and you don't have a car.' I said, 'I got a thumb.''
With his bellbottoms and 'hippie long hair,' that summer Crummer walked to the edge of the road and stuck his thumb out – starting the first of a lifetime of pilgrimages across the world, from Africa and India and all places in between.
Crummer, who grew up among the Amish in Millbank, is a gardener and a minister at CityGate Church Stratford. He chronicles his pilgrimages, both the ones close by and the ones far away, in his new self-published book A Gardener's Pilgrimage.
As he said, he tells the stories of his pilgrimages through his lens as a gardener because it has been his passion near his whole life.
'It always seemed to be not too far away,' Crummer said. 'When I was hitchhiking, I was collecting seeds. I would see these unusual plants and I was collecting seeds … it was gardening, yeah, but there was always a spiritual element to it. And I was always seeing life through (it).'
Three years ago, a friend of Crummer's who happened to be an author encouraged him to write a book. Thinking nothing of it, Crummer went about his life for a few months before he decided one morning to give journaling a try.
'Well, let's just see what's in in my brain and see if anything's coming out,' Crummer joked. Every morning for the next three years Crummer woke at 5 a.m. and journaled by his fireplace in his backyard.
Crummer said that once he started, it was impossible to stop. Memories he had forgotten about surfaced and overflowed out of him.
One core memory which he wrote about in the book was when he first took a shine to gardening. As he said, he was about seven-years-old and throwing a rubber ball against a wall outside.
'And mom is out in the garden. She had a huge garden because there's 10 in our family. I'm one of 10,' Crummer said. '… And I stopped throwing the ball, and I remember kind of watching and following her, not saying too much. And then it's just like something was brought to the surface, curiosity or whatever, and I ended up asking mom if I could have my own garden. It started from there.
'I just had a sense that it was my family memoir based around the word seeds and being a gardener. It was very natural for me to write my family memoir through the eyes of a gardener, and it gives stories around the seeds and the power that there is in a seed.'
Crummer shared that we all have a metaphoric garden within us to plant seeds – to nurture our life experiences and connections and to reap their benefits once they've been properly cared for. That idea, he said, is the heart of the book.
While he does share actual gardening tips, Crummer said that readers should know going into it that it is a family memoir above all. Since he published the book in February, and it hit the shelves of Fanfare Books in downtown Stratford just this month, he has gotten very positive feedback from readers.
Crummer said that he hopes that anyone reading his book takes away not only the lessons he has learned through his stories, but also the lessons to be learned from their own stories.
'We live in a very complicated world right now. There's a lot of negativity,' he said. 'I want people to reflect on their own life. My story, your story, they're all important. And don't ever think that that your life is not valuable. It certainly is. We have these seeds and it's up to us to activate them. It's up to us to water them, but they can sit in our heart our whole life dormant.'
Those interested in reading more about Crummer's work sowing seeds can find the book at Blowes Cards & Gifts, Fanfare Books or on Amazon:
.
